It’s National Carbonated Beverage with Caffeine Day. Talk about ridiculous. Call it Pop, call it Soda or simply just call it what it is- garbage disguised as sugary, calorie laden liquid. I can’t even imagine anything worse to put in your body.

*taking a deep breath* Ok, now would you like to know how I really feel about it? Sorry for the rant.

Maybe it’s due to the fact that I have never been much of a pop-a-holic. Sure it’s OK once in a while- I mean, nothing tastes quite like a Diet Coke over ice that has been liberally doused with fresh squeezed lime juice and when I was first pregnant with the Little Carnivore, and mind you had not drank a soda in like a million and one years, I craved Coca Cola over ice to a near fatal extent and was at a point where I wanted to literally gnaw my arm off in exchange for one. I tell you, those pregnancy cravings are something else. And that first sip, ever, of that first Coke over ice made that little zygote residing deep inside me so darn happy, quelling the intense craving and I was saved, thank God. At least for a while, you know….until I had to have the next one.

No wonder my now 14yo teenager has such a sweet tooth.

ANYWAY……gosh, could I get any further off track? That soda craving never took hold once my son joined the world and although I indulge here and there, especially enjoying a Diet Cherry Coke now and then, I simply don’t get the current craze of Rockstar, Red Bull, Bawls (what the…??) Envigo or the really intense hair-pulling I think of when I see bottled water with caffeine. And what’s worse is that these beverages are ridiculously popular. Coffee consumption has spiked to new highs in our society, leaving no other conclusion than the fact that we, as Americans, are absolutely and ridiculously addicted to caffeine.

Now I am a coffee drinker, and I am sipping on a delightful mug of java as I write this, so I am not one to point a finger at another’s addiction. I’m all there on it too. But in coffee, not carbonation. I’ve tried several of the new-fangled “energy” drinks and found them disgustingly sweet and yucky. I think Red Bull tastes like liquid Sweet Tarts, which I never liked anyway, and Rockstar is no better. But there is a market for these, and given the sheer number of people I see clutching an “energy” drink in their tight fists, apparently it’s not going away any time soon. It makes me wonder though- do people really like the stuff, or are they conforming to something popular? I can recall watching a group of teenage girls one day, each one gripping a can of Red Bull, and noticing that none of them ever took a sip of the drink. They just carried it like some badge of honor. It leads me to wonder; is caffeine trendy?

Shouldn’t we be more careful of the potential side effects of too much caffeine????

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTC2Ihnsrf0&hl=en&fs=1]

What ever your poison, enjoy the day. It’s a holiday after all and count me in as one of the addicted. I love my coffee and have indulged in it daily since I was a teenager. I’ll never quit drinking it.